it can’t happen here

Is the lawlessness of Obama’s drone policy coming home?

"Global powers have an antisocial habit of bringing their work back home. The British government imported some of the methods it used against its colonial subjects to suppress domestic protests and strikes. Once an administrative class becomes accustomed to treating foreigners as if they have no rights, and once the domestic population broadly accepts their justifications, it is almost inevitable that the habit migrates from one arena into another. If hundreds of people living abroad can be executed by American agents on no more than suspicion, should we be surprised if residents of the United States began to be treated the same way?" Continue reading →

Continue ReadingIs the lawlessness of Obama’s drone policy coming home?

Jimmy Carter: U.S. Has ‘A Cruel and Unusual Record’

“Recent legislation has made legal the president’s right to detain a person indefinitely on suspicion of affiliation with terrorist organizations or ‘associated forces,’ a broad, vague power that can be abused without meaningful oversight from the courts or Congress. In addition to American citizens’ being targeted for assassination or indefinite detention, recent laws have canceled the restraints in the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978 to allow unprecedented violations of our rights to privacy through warrantless wiretapping and government mining of our electronic communications.” Continue reading →

Continue ReadingJimmy Carter: U.S. Has ‘A Cruel and Unusual Record’

Jimmy Carter: ‘A Cruel and Unusual Record’

"Recent legislation has made legal the president’s right to detain a person indefinitely on suspicion of affiliation with terrorist organizations or 'associated forces,' a broad, vague power that can be abused without meaningful oversight from the courts or Congress. In addition to American citizens’ being targeted for assassination or indefinite detention, recent laws have canceled the restraints in the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978 to allow unprecedented violations of our rights to privacy through warrantless wiretapping and government mining of our electronic communications." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingJimmy Carter: ‘A Cruel and Unusual Record’

4th of July DUI Checkpoint – Drug Dogs, Searched without Consent, Rights Taken Away, while Innocent

"The officer orders me to pull over and get out of my car, bullies me around, gets the drug sniffing K-9, lies about me having 'Illegal Drugs' in the car, searches without consent, and tells me that it is ok to take away my freedom. All while not being detained. All this harassment because my window was not lowered enough to his preference. I broke no laws whatsoever. All of this on a day that we are supposed to be celebrating freedom and liberty. At the end of the encounter, the officer did not want to give me his name when I asked him. After I repeatedly asked him, he finally gave it to me." Continue reading →

Continue Reading4th of July DUI Checkpoint – Drug Dogs, Searched without Consent, Rights Taken Away, while Innocent

David Galland: How to Tell if You Live in a Police State

"It is always worth remembering that humans can adopt very warped attitudes, even to the point of falling in love with mad dogs… and mad rulers. But more to the actual point of mad dogs and all that, the mindset of all the various branches of what is currently lumped under the moniker 'Homeland Security' – from the top right down to the domestic police force – has devolved to the point where a growing swath of the general population is now actively afraid of them. Previously, it was only black people who had been trained by bitter experience to fear 'the man.' Now the rest of us are beginning to understand what they have been complaining about all these years." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingDavid Galland: How to Tell if You Live in a Police State

Gideon Gono is Not Disappointing Me

"I have just started reading former Zimbabwe central banker Gideon Gono's book, Zimababwe's Casino Economy. It is meeting my expectations. So far I have learned, he has four children, Passion, Prince, Pride and Praise. He has an undergraduate correspondence degree from Rapid Results College and in the book, he slams critics of his honorary PhD degree from the University of Zimbabwe. In a Krugman-would-be-proud fashion, Gono informs in the book, that toward the end of his reign as head of the central bank, inflation hit 231 million percent annually." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingGideon Gono is Not Disappointing Me

The Flashpoints of Revolution Here at Home

"During the Great Recession, 60% of the job losses occurred in the middle-income ranks. Yet, 60% of the jobs that have returned have come in the low-income ranks. Worse, the labor participation rate of America’s youth – those aged 16 to 24 – is at its lowest level since, at least, the 1970s. Obama’s America, thus, is breeding economic desperation as middle-income families struggle to reclaim a lifestyle they once knew and as easily agitated youth with little to lose find that America has too few jobs for them. That is a flashpoint. So, too, is the systemic and expanding welfare mentality that has infected our government and too many of our people." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingThe Flashpoints of Revolution Here at Home

The Brutality of “Border Security”

"This money will be used to create what John McCain calls 'the most militarized border since the fall of the Berlin Wall,' staffed by at least 38,405 Border Patrol agents. That’s a larger force than George W. Bush had stationed in Afghanistan when he left office. No wonder it’s been called the 'border surge.' Those agents will be armed with billions of dollars worth of equipment from America’s leading war profiteers. As usual, militarization means obscene corporate profits at taxpayer expense. Moreover, increasing 'border security' funding means expanding an agency whose members routinely violate civil liberties and have even committed murder." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingThe Brutality of “Border Security”

Warrantless Window-Smashing Weapon Search At U.S. Border Patrol Internal Checkpoint

"I was detained for 9hrs and cuffed 6 of that. I went from an outdoor bench to a detention trailer, fingerprinted, photographed. Did a criminal history search. Brought to admin trailer and cuffed to a bench. My Cameras, Computer, Phone, iPod cataloged. A high clearance Agent was sought view my recent FBI Interrogation. I was trucked to a permanent detention center. All was confiscated. They set me on foot 200miles from home, 100miles from my destination with ID and credit cards." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingWarrantless Window-Smashing Weapon Search At U.S. Border Patrol Internal Checkpoint

First Amendment lawyer: ‘It is a terrible time to be a journalist’

"Jeff Portnoy was referring to the Obama administration’s secret subpoenas for journalists’ phone and Internet records, as well as the U.S. Department of Justice’s secret investigation into Associated Press and Fox News reporters 'in the name of national security.' Portnoy received a First Amendment award for his work in trying to prevent Hawaii’s five-year-old Journalism Shield law from expiring June 30. The version which passed eliminated from protection bloggers, online journalists and non-traditional journalists. Journalists who investigate fraud, waste and corruption are a 'dying breed,' Portnoy said, but they are needed now more than ever." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingFirst Amendment lawyer: ‘It is a terrible time to be a journalist’